When an artefact cleaning shop owner decides to take a week’s vacation, he puts you in charge of minding the shop until his return. All you have to do is look after the weird and wonderful clients that visit Wyrmhall, chat with them, and clean their stuff. How could that possibly lead to a wild plot to destroy the market of Wyrmhall?! Well… if you play your cleaning cards right, all will be revealed.
Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter is a succinct and endearing story-driven game that has two very distinct gameplay styles. Across seven days you’ll open the shop and welcome in all kinds of shifty-looking customers, each with their own artefact to clean. Some look innocent like magical teacups, and others are shadow amulets that have moving parts. Others even include deadly poisonous nails or bombs which require a delicate and steady hand. Your first step is to talk to them, using a choice of conversational prompts. Some clients are chatty, others are less so, and your choices may influence whether they become regular customers or not.
The wider consideration comes with the artefact cleaning. You have five main tools at your disposal, with three being used more often – a brush, a rag, and a bag. These remove dirt clumps, grassy vines, and weird grub-like mites. There is also a tweezer and a magical mirror to discover other things to clean too, but they come more into play later in the game. Your job is to rotate the artefact, select the right tool and select the thing to remove. It is simple, but Wyrmhall does a great job of switching up the idea constantly. Shadow artefacts are all black so you have to twist to get the angle right. Some artefacts constantly move or rotate so you’ll be timing button presses alongside getting the right view. Others ask you to avoid touching certain parts of the artefact although I’d recommend doing so on multiple playthroughs to experience the wackier side of the writing. There’s even an invisible customer with invisible globes.
Depending on how well you clean the objects will determine your pay rewards. Get it sparkly and shiny and you’ll receive lots of cash which can help with the overarching plot. Miss too much dirt and grime and not only will you get less cash, but the customers might not return. What’s interesting about the story is that different endings require you to give different levels of service to different clients and/or befriend or give them the cold shoulder. Whilst the conversational scenes are usually quite short, they diverge out hugely meaning you’ll still be discovering totally new paths five playthroughs in. It is a variable three-hour jaunt each time and the story can be very different.
I have very little criticism of Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter because it delivered everything it said it would. The story was engaging, endearing, and lacked fluff and filler. The cleaning aspects were simple but the application of its ideas was constantly varied. I also really liked the soundtrack. It’s a mixture of pirate swashbuckling and Medieval folk tavern-style music, with a few random tunes thrown in. Perhaps spending most of the game standing behind the same countertop was a little limiting but I only felt that because the world of Wyrmhall felt so interesting and well realised. I’d love a follow-up where we get to wander around the market town for instance and spot our customers doing their weird and wonderful daily lives.
As shorter story-focused games go, Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter is a delight to play. If you enjoy the more lighthearted side of fantasy adventuring, and a somewhat cosy yet quirky vibe, give this game a go.
A review copy was provided by the publisher. Wyrmhall: Brush and Banter is out now on Steam.
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